NOAA data are used in a variety of ways. For instance, Michigan State University uses GOES images to produce weather movies. Like to surf? Predictions of surfing conditions in California and Hawaii from SurfNet are based on NOAA data. More examples on what you can do with data from NOAA can be found in the following documents.
NOAA's largest sources of archived data are available at the following national data centers:
NOAA Environmental Information Services provides information about organizations, on-line systems, data sets, and other products available from NOAA from the data centers and other NOAA data providers.
To find data and data products of interest, select one of the search programs below. We suggest you use the NOAA Data Set Catalog.
NOAA is an
active participant
in the
Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
of the
National Spatial Data
Infrastructure (NSDI).
Department of Commerce employees chair three subcommittees in the areas
of bathymetry, geodetic control, and cultural and demographic data.
ESDIM has developed
FGDC Metadata Standards for NOAA datasets.
The
NOAA Environmental Services Data Directory
now has over 8,000 descriptions of NOAA data sets in the
FGDC Metadata Standard format.
Other services provided by NOAA Environmental Information Services:
The National Environmental Data Index (NEDI) provides direct access to environmental data and information descriptions held at many locations. It allows full-text searching of these environmental metadata using WAIS search software and the Z39.50 protocol to communicate over the Internet. The overall goal of NEDI is to identify the widest possible range of environmental data and information and thereby facilitate their use by citizens, industry, government, and academia. NEDI is a core element of the National Information Infrastructure (NII).
Statistics for NESDIS On-Line Usage and
Off-Line Requests
Usage of NOAA data
has grown rapidly since tracking was started in July 1994.
The number of
online questions (traffic from the Internet)
has grown almost 15 times. The number of
questions from offline sources is increasing more slowly.
EIS Home Page Usage
Usage of NOAA's Environmental Information
Services Home Page
has been increasing tremendously since the NOAA Environmental Information
Services Home Page was first made available in November, 1993.
To send comments, suggestions and questions to the NOAA Environmental
Information Services, fill out the form,
or contact:
NOAA Environmental Information Services
1315 East West Highway, Room 15400
Silver Sping, MD 20910
Phone: 301-713-0575
FAX: 301-713-1249
E-mail: help@esdim.noaa.gov